


A Light Ever so Bright

by Winter1231505



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Action/Adventure, Fantasy, Friendship/Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-14
Updated: 2021-02-20
Packaged: 2021-03-14 06:28:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 16,976
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29414127
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Winter1231505/pseuds/Winter1231505
Summary: In the 104th Cadet Regiment, two recruits soon find themselves intertwined in each others fates. Though unbeknownst to them both, their destiny is leading them on a collision course to fight against the dark fates each of their futures entail. With the Wings of Freedom enblazoned on their backs however, the will to fight for their survival shall not be so easily stamped out.
Kudos: 1





	1. Chapter 1

**AN:** Hey y'all, just a quick little Author's Note before jumping into this story. First of all, thanks for clicking on this story, it's been a guilty pleasure of mine that I've wanted to write ever since I had gotten back into the AoT series in late 2020. It's been a blast, and going from my close memories of the original Season 1 of the anime that I watched all the way back in 2014 to actually catching up on the newer seasons up to the end of Season 3 has been an incredible journey that basically reignited my love for the franchise. So, in accordance with that, I bring you a new story that I hope you shall enjoy! Disclaimer, in these few early chapters I have to disclose that I only have vague recollections on many of the smaller details like direct dialogue and certain scenes and how they play out, so don't expect an exact play by play.

And that's about it, read, enjoy, and leave your thoughts, and I'll see you all later.

* * *

**Chapter 1: The 104th**

Dozens of figures swept through the bristling trees, their ODM gear being used to near masterful efficiency. Though only cadets a year into their training, each generation has its shining stars, and this one is no different. In fact, there seems to be more than enough competition this time around. The wooden targets had finally been set up, and as soon as the signal was given, they were erected for the cadets to take down. This would be their first free form exercise since the beginning of their training a year ago, their chance to prove themselves, and a chance for the instructors to see who to focus on in the division.

Keith Sadies stood atop one of the many large trees to oversee the exercise, keeping a watchful eye on each and every one of his trainees. First time courses like this are bound to have accidents happen, yet to his relief, and dismay, the cadets seemed much more focused on the sport of it all than risking life and limb. A brown flash whistled past him, its hook connected firmly onto one of the wooden titans. With pinpoint accuracy, firm dedication, and just the right bit of skill, the first makeshift nape had been cut.

' _Marcel Galliard,'_ Sadies thought, opening up a small paper section of his notepad about the cadet. _'one of the stars of this generation, and a damn good soldier in the making. Quick-footed and quick-witted, he's got just the right amount of skills and natural talent to pass this generation with flying colors.'_

The brown haired boy whizzed away in a flash, continuing on to the next target. This would not be the first time Sadies had seen himself an up-start group of show offs for recruits, yet in this case, the recruits seemed to have the skills to back up their bravado, while others didn't need any bravado to begin with.

In only a moment afterwards, the second strike to the titan's fake nape had been struck. _'Mikasa Ackerman'_ Sadies saw the young girl maneuver around in her gear as if she had been doing it her entire life. _'The undisputed ace of this generation, her fighting capabilities and strategic mind are second to none. Alongside that, she shares a sharp thought process and decision making abilities I may have seen in only a scarce few soldiers before and after my time. The only thing holding her back however, is the fixation she has on another recruit.'_

Speak of the devil. A third strike, finishing off what room was left on the makeshift nape could still be cut, soon the wooden titan was promptly lowered. _'Eren Jaeger'_ Sadies saw the boy eye the two first place contenders with a hungry look of competition. _'his un-extraordinary skills have only been tempered with his determination and unparalleled willpower to keep going. In terms of ODM-maneuvering, he's dead average, yet sometimes he makes up for it with a terrifying amount of enthusiasm to keep going, possessing twice the sense of purpose than anyone else in the 104th.'_

More targets began popping up, only to be quickly cut down by the other cadets. One of whom, it seems, was making quite the show for himself. _'Jean Kirschtein'_ Sadies looked at the grinning boy who had managed to score his fourth cut in a row. _'a masterful expert in terms of ODM-maneuverability, yet the same could not be said for his people skills. What he makes up for in his top-class mobility is usually brought down quickly by his own volatile nature.'_

Another set of wooden titans appeared on the far south side of the training field. Being satisfied of the performances so far, he used his own personal ODM-gear to fly over to the next position and watch over the other group of cadets. Flying high up in the trees so as to not disturb the cadets' own maneuvering, it seemed the new group did not even notice him when he landed atop a new branch to scout over the trainees. Good, this way he could see them in their element, or see if they were slacking off. The latrines needed some scrubbing anyways.

Immediately his attention was turned to one of the recruits who seemed to be performing admirably. _'Gabriel Mackensen'_ he spotted the green-eyed boy easily, not for his own lack of trying that is. _'where others might be adept at one or two personal attributes, he seems to fit the bill in every possible regard, a jack-of-all trades. His ODM-skills are above average to say the least, and he can think fast and be quick on his feet better than most. Where he excels however, is staying calm under stressful situations, something most soldiers desperately need.'_ the boy glided across the trees, doing multiple circles around his target before pinning a hook onto the makeshift ankle of the large wooden figure. _'His movements are precise, every action he makes has purpose.'_ a clean hit, yet the boy wasn't done there. _'There's only one problem that keeps him from being up there with the other promising recruits.'_ unhooking himself from the wooden figure, he gained some altitude before being just overhead. With a gust from his canister he sent himself barrelling down towards the nape of his target and-

-he whiffed it.

' _He's a serial slacker. Doing just the bare essentials to pass, if even that.'_ it bothered Keith to no end, and despite his many attempts to force the young man into actually using the skills he so clearly had it was as futile as Jaeger's aspirations. He could not even be angry at it all. You couldn't say the boy was slacking, at least not fully, since his overall performance was still above average from your average cadet. And if Keith were to use him as the basis of what not matching an average was, well then two certain cadets he knew would be on the bottom bin.

' _Sasha Braus and Connie Springer.'_ two peas in a pod those two, seemingly created to be a thorn in Sadies' sanity. He watched Springer execute a quick successive slice right after Mackensen's miss across the nape. _'He's good at performing quick-turns and has the body of someone who would normally excel at all forms of ODM-maneuvering. His biggest downside though is his own ego and dim-wittedness, despite often referring to himself as a "genius in the making".'_ Just after him came Braus with an equally swift overhead strike, imitating Mackensen's own move but with admittedly far more free-flow movements. _'Armed with an unconventionally good intuition, the girl's a hunter through and through, fitting given her origins I assume. Yet like Springer, it's mainly her personality that keeps her from being any sort of major player on the field.'_

On the very edge of his field of view, another cadet could be spotted. _'Dora Schulze.'_ he noted. _'A soldier to the bone that one. She's good at following orders and dishing them out equally, if a bit stiff on the latter. If she manages to make it into the top ten, a life in the Military Police could just be what the girl deserves.'_ the girl made a circle around her target before detaching her hook and going into a spinning motion. A gust of gas followed her being propelled towards the target, re-attaching the hook dead on and performing a slick cut right across the middle. _'It's a shame she seems hell bent on joining the Survey Corp, but who knows, with her skills, she might just survive. There's just one problem though, she seems to have damn bad luck with equipment malfunctions.'_

As if on queue, Sadies could spot Schulze's hooks attach themselves at a bad angle towards one of the trees. When she pressed the triggers to reel herself in, both hooks immediately broke off, causing her to stop abruptly in the air. Keith was about ready to jump in himself to stop the girl from falling to her death. Injuries were common in the training process for new regiments, even fatal ones unfortunately, but that didn't mean instructors were given authorization to stick behind and watch it happen.

"Watch out!" just as he was about to deploy his ODM however, one of the other cadets managed to catch her in time.

' _Reiner Braun.'_ Sadies noted the brash blonde-haired young man. _'The strong silent type to most. He keeps to himself and it seems that's mainly the way everyone likes it. He's well versed in ODM training and can put some titans to shame with the amount of muscle he has on him. Despite and partially because of his lack of social skills, most of his fellow cadets view him with either respect, admiration, or fear.'_

Braun managed to pull the girl towards one of the trees branches, landing safely, they both took a large breath in and out. It was a risky maneuver, that possibly could have ended in both of them sustaining injuries rather than just one. With the speed Reiner had been going to try and catch her in time as well, a collision of the two damn well might have broken both of their necks. Still, all was well enough, and a flustered recruit is better than a dead one.

* * *

**One Year Earlier...**

"What is your name maggot?!" the instructor's voice echoed fiercely across the canyon as the young recruit in front of him saluted instinctively.

"Armin Arlelt, Sir!"

"Armin, did your parents give you that name?" he looked at the boy with deep eyes of seeming hatred, some of the recruits seemed more visibly distressed than Armin himself.

"M-my grandfather did… Sir!" Armin responded meekly.

"Then it'll be a good name for Titan fodder." Sadies put a hand on Armin's head and turned him around, "Third row, about face!"

Today would mark the enrollment for Dora into the Cadet Corps, where for the next 3 years, she and her comrades would train to become Humanity's shield against the titans. Though right now, all they were seemingly doing was being force fed insults through the mouth of Instructor Keith Sadies. He continued harassing the new recruits, even striking one with a sudden headbutt, John or something was his name, she wasn't really paying attention. Still, it felt like just her luck for Sadies to eventually find himself facing towards her.

"And what's your name, cadet?" he asked in a low tone.

"Dora Schulze, Sir!" she saluted the instructor who stood nearly a head and a half taller than her, looking down on her with those sunken eyes.

"And why are _you_ here, Schulze?" his voice seemed more threatening than inquisitory, but Dora attempted to not be fazed by it. This was hazing, nothing more. No one deserved to be a soldier if this was the point where they would break.

She sighed internally, having rehearsed this line for months in preparation just in the case someone would ask her this. "To serve humanity and eliminate the Titans, Sir!" doing her best to not make it seem as if she was not reading from a script, which at one point she most definitely was, the instructor seemed at least somewhat pleased by her answer.

"And how exactly do you plan on doing that, Cadet?"

With only a few words, Dora was rendered near speechless. _'Shit.'_ was all that could come to her mind, this wasn't in the script. Nevertheless, she would improvise. "Any way I can Sir, and mainly, by joining the Survey Corp." in an ironic twist this half-baked response came out far more naturally than her rehearsed answer. Sadies looked like he was barely fighting back a laugh.

"Excellent, I'm sure the Corp will be more than happy to welcome any new eager recruits. Who knows, you might even earn yourself a quick death on the first expedition."

It unnerved her how calm Sadies had sounded with his words, especially in comparison to just moments prior. Still, she remained undeterred, after an uncomfortable moment of silence and a few glares from her other recruits, the instructor eventually moved on. And Dora could only be glad she wasn't the biggest embarrassment of that day.

That reward would fall to the girl who somehow managed to sneak in a potato to snack on during inductions.

* * *

**A Few Hours Later…**

The mess hall was abuzz with life and it could be well understood why. For one, it was a bunch of new people, mainly still adolescents, meeting each other, determining who they would begin speaking with, who they should eat next to, getting to know one another. For another, three of said adolescents were currently the center of attention for this little barrage of new recruits, with one among the trio talking in the center of it all.

Questions and quizzing, facts and myth, all of it was being shared to one Eren Jaeger and his friends by a large group of their comrades. It did not take long to find out that him, Armin Arlert, and Mikasa Ackerman were all from Shiganshina District from the former Wall Maria. It was nothing new to find urchins from the former districts within Wall Rose's territory, what was rarer was trying to find their parents, as most of them likely were laying seven feet under the ground as worm food, or worse still have long been regurgitated from the belly of a titan after the reclamation campaign's extraordinary failure.

Yet while Eren Jaeger and his compatriots stood in the limelight, others went on about their business. Seeing no need to involve themselves in barraging the 13-year old with more questions or simply finding the whole thing rather idiotic. Gabriel was somewhere in the middle.

He sat in a small corner alone with nothing but a plate of mashed potatoes and vegetables accompanying his table. Watching it all unfold, he still couldn't help but find amusement in just how interested the cadets were in the whole ordeal, or at least, hearing Eren's perspective on it all. He could not even feign being above it in all honesty, as Gabriel himself was also somewhat interested in hearing a first-hand recollection from someone who was there. Yet, as it was now, it seemed Eren Jaeger was far more concerned at impressing those around him than giving out an accurate retelling of what truly happened at Shiganshina.

For a moment, he let the noise of the background chatter overtake his senses as he focused more on finishing his meal, yet just as he had lost interest in overhearing Jaeger's chest-bumping retellings, it seemed as if a spark had been lit.

"What did you say?!" Eren practically jumped from his table towards another one of the recruits.

"Oh I'm sorry, have I offended the little Shiganshina boy? My apologies." the other boy responded, the same scruffy brown haired boy Instructor Sadies beat to the dirt this morning. Jean Kirschtein, he recalled the kid's name.

Gabriel could only sit back and watch the spectacle as the two entered into an argument, with Eren morally grandstanding to Kirschtein on the futility of joining the Military Police, something it seems Jean is aiming for.

"Not all of us are suicidal lunatics like you Jaeger, and we certainly don't have any far-fetched ideas like, what, trying to exterminate every single Titan there is?" the way Jean spoke reminded Gabriel bitterly of many of his father's former accomplices and business partners, snobby two-nosed and no-good charlatans who thought themselves better than anyone else, only difference being Jean was not from Wall Sina, he was from Trost, in Wall Rose.

"Enough, both of you!" another recruit stepped in between the both of them, yet was paid little heed as the argument proceeded to become more heated. He couldn't recognize the cadet as anyone Sadies interrogated from this morning, but made a mental note of him and what he looked like from the crowd of others. Anyone willing to get in between Jaeger's rants was a brave man indeed it seemed as the first blows were just about to start flying before they even got into their ODM gear.

"Stay out of this!" Eren shouted, attempting to push the taller boy to the side but failing miserably as he now stood even more in Jaeger's way, having a hand placed on both of them to make them keep their distance.

"What's wrong Jaeger, can't fight your own battles so you call on others to hold you back? I'm sure the Titans will be quaking when they see you." Jean continued to antagonize Eren, not even trying to fight away from the other recruits grasp and rather choosing to just cross his arms in an arrogant show.

"Unless you want to get flogged by Sadies I suggest you both keep it down." another voice came from the sides. Gabriel immediately recognized her, Dora Schultze, the little "hero cadet" as some seemed to begin calling her. Though sitting rather far away from the action next to some other girls of the newly formed platoon, she could still be heard clearly.

It was not her words alone that brought a deathly silence to the room, it was her ominous warning alongside the very clear sound of a squeaking door being opened. From the entrance, half of Instructor Sadies slowly creeped in from the shadows. An actual Titan appearing in front of their door could not have possibly brought on more terror as all the recruits felt at that very moment. Even Jaeger and Kirschtein, who seemed hell bent on continuing this little charade of a fight, froze up immediately upon noticing.

"That's an excellent observation Schulze." Sadies spoke in a deceivingly low tone, almost hiding the rage he was currently channeling towards the mess hall in the venomous politeness of his words. "Do tell me though, what _exactly_ should I be flogging the upstanding recruits of these premises for?" Yet again, silence. It felt as if the very roof would begin caving in at the amount of pressure being put on the recruits. Even Gabriel himself could not find it in him to speak up. Was this what true fear felt like?

Yet among even the most terrified of them all, there would always emerge at least one lion of valor to take the torch and lead them out of the pit of darkness. That lion just so happened to be Ackerman, who raised her hand to answer the Instructor.

"Sasha farted Sir."

Such simple words rarely caused the amount of uproar that it did, yet instead of said uproar coming from the recruits in the mess hall, it was all concentrated into one girl. That girl being Sasha Braus, who had a look of utter despair and shock on her face. A shame, it seems for the pack to survive some must be left behind as an offering to the wolves. Perhaps the only thing that could overtake the utter helplessness of Sasha's face was Sadies' tired sigh at the whole thing.

"I don't know what I was expecting, by the Walls girl, learn some self-control." rubbing his temple for a moment, Sadies slowly closed the doors of the mess hall, leaving a petrified wake of cadets slowly beginning to thaw out of their cocoons of fear.

It was a rather amusing spectacle, and were he not too focused on Jaeger and Kirschtein's whole debacle he may have had the interest on seeing what was happening between Mikasa and Sasha after all of that, the latter of which furiously shaking the dark-haired girl, her face red with embarrassment.

Rising out of his chair out from the corner of the mess hall, many eyes soon descended upon Gabriel as a slow clap could be heard coming from the as-of-yet inconspicuous cadet minding his own business away from the action. "Well done you two." he said with a condescending laugh. "Nearly thrown out of boot camp on your first day, I would say both of you almost broke a world record there."

"And what do you want? Come to join in on down-talking me?" Eren was immediately on the defensive, the fire in the boys eye not disappearing for even a second after that whole ordeal. It seemed 'scaring him straight' was not something Eren Jaeger quite understood, that or he was simply playing ignorant, either way Gabriel couldn't help but laugh at the show Jaeger seemed intent on prolonging.

"Oh no, no, by the Walls no." Gabriel feigned ignorance as well, though it was as well disguised as Jean's feeble attempts at sounding like some sort of intellectual. "I simply wanted to congratulate and commend you." he toned down the snobbish attitude in his voice for that next part, and it seemed to capture Eren genuinely off guard. "It's a noble goal you have Jaeger, one I'm sure many people here share. One that I'm sure many people within the Survey Corp themselves share as well."

"You… you really think so?" gone was the anger that tempered Eren's gaze just a few moments ago, now being replaced with some well-placed animosity between them, yet still a little spark of hope that perhaps someone understood his dream.

"Yes indeed I do." it was a rather cruel form of torture then to strip that hope down. "As much as I am sure that the many others who came before you with that very same dream, I think I can find comfort in knowing that the Scouts shall have another starry-eyed piece of fodder they can use on their expeditions." like the strike of a match the fire was reignited.

"Why you-" the boy had completely forgotten about his altercations with Jean at that point, and now seemed ready to pounce at Gabriel like a rabid dog, only to be stopped by the other of two more Shiganshina survivors.

"Eren, that's enough." Mikasa said in a firm tone, this was perhaps the first time Gabriel had heard her speak. Her voice was strange, as if it carried no sense of self within the girl, only speaking in a single yet decisive tone. It seemed enough for Jaeger. With a disgruntled sigh, he left the mess hall alongside his two other friends, Mikasa walking close behind with Armin scampering to close the distance.

"Don't let the door hit you on the way out Jaeger." Jean remarked snidely, foolishly thinking Gabriel was here to pick sides. "I don't think we've met, Jean Kirschtein, a pleasure." he extended a hand to Gabriel.

"No, I don't think we have. Yet it seems I already know more than enough about you Kirschtein." that immediately caught the little weasel off guard. "No better than Jaeger you are. Though at least his convictions are somewhat admirable, from my understanding, you just want to live a cozy life in the interior, is that right?"

"Well of course. You're someone from Sina, right? You of all people could understand the benefits of living there compared to anywhere near Wall Rose." he spoke as a natural bootlicker would, it nearly physically hurt Gabriel on just how much this boy reminded him of others he knew from the interior. In a way, he'd fit right in.

"You couldn't be more right, Jean. I _do_ know how it is in Wall Sina. And something else I know." he grabbed the boys hand and shook it tightly, trapping Jean in a grip using both hands. "People like you don't last very long in the interior."

Jean was more distraught than anything, it looked as if Kirschtein did not share in Jaeger's fiery temper, and knew when to back down without outside influence. Silently the boy huffed, trying to restore what little image he had left and in a quiet returned back to his seat. Slowly, people started going about their business, moving on and starting new conversations. Yet for Gabriel, this seemed a prime opportunity to meet some new faces.

"Quite the spectacle you put on to just effectively tell the both of them to go suck one." the recruit who had previously attempted to play negotiator approached Gabriel.

"I wanted to stay back a little further and see what you could do. It seemed after Sadies you needed some help however."

"It's a right tragedy is what it is. Soldiers shouldn't be bickering amongst each other like children."

He couldn't help but chuckle to himself at that. _'Then what are we then, my friend, if not children about to be turned into warriors.'_ most of the new recruits here could not have been more than 13, the minimal age requirement for enlistment, with Gabriel actually being on the older side of it all at 16, and it showed. This cadet he was currently talking to also seemed to be on the younger side, though admittedly he was probably a year older than Jaeger and Kirschtein, he did looked somewhat the part.

"Gabriel, Gabriel Mackensen." for a moment he imitated Jean's maneuver in reaching out his hand to introduce himself to his new acquaintance.

"Marcel Galliard. And for what it's worth, thanks for the help, if you can even call it that." he shook Gabriel's hand with a tired smile.

"Sometimes the best way to defuse a situation is playing to the strengths of both parties. It just so happened that this time around those strengths happened to be public brow-beatings."

"I'll take your word for it." for a moment, Marcel looked over to where Gabriel had come from, and the lone table with a tray filled with half-eaten food. "Do you want to join us over there? I can promise you it's better than sitting by yourself the entire time." he signalled over to where three more recruits were sat down. A large and bulky blonde haired boy, a shorter blonde haired girl, and a rather tall and lanky darker haired boy.

"I might just take you up on that offer, Marcel, thank you very much."

Walking over to the far end table and grabbing his tray from it, Gabriel did as was asked of him and joined his newly found acquaintance alongside some other colleagues and comrades-to-be. Some still gave Gabriel off-side glances as he did so, the most prominent two, from the ones he noticed at least, being the Schultze girl and Kirschtein, not even attempting to hide his contempt.

"Quite the show you just put on." The blonde haired boy was the first to speak up. Though somewhat similar in height, one would be scarce remiss to confuse this boy with having the body of an already full grown man. It looked as if he might have been almost twice the size of Gabriel in terms of width alone, making him question if the man could even properly balance himself on the ODM-wires when the time would come. "They teach you to talk pretty like that in the Interior?" he asked.

"My mother always did say I'd have a good career in theater." Gabriel responded simply. He knew very well that condescending tone. In some way it was similar to how nobles would speak of the people outside of Wall Sina, simply the other way around in terms of the wheel of contempt. In some way though, he much preferred it to people trying to suck up to him.

"So, the lordling finally decide to grace us with his presence? Or has the small corner proved not good enough for you anymore?" the girl was the one to speak up this time, yet in a much more monotone voice that reminded him immediately of Mikasa.

"Yes, something like that." despite the change in tone, the intent was all the same, to try and get a rise out of him, yet Gabriel only responded with a smile. "There were plenty of open seats as you no doubt saw during Jaeger's little charade, but I simply didn't want to take anyone's already occupied spots. No point in it if I'm being honest." there was not even a hint of lies sprinkled in Gabriel's sentence, he was being quite sincere here, and the three of his as-of-yet unnamed colleagues seemed to believe him.

The blonde haired boy eyed Gabriel up and down for a moment, as if examining him with crossed arms. After a few moments, he spoke up again. "Reiner Braun, nice to meet ya." he introduced himself.

"Bertholdt Hoover." the tall boy followed suit, actually reaching for a handshake unlike the other two, which Gabriel gladly accepted.

"Annie." the girl responded, nothing else to it, though he thought pushing for a last name at this point would be pushing it.

"Gabriel Mackensen, a pleasure to meet you all."


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2: Balance**

“Atten-tion!” The recruits all stood at the ready in front of Chief Instructor Sadies. “Today marks the first official day of your training. As per tradition, you shall be tested on whether or not you can actually control yourselves enough in the most vital aspect of human-on-titan combat.” Stepping aside, Sadies showed the cadets a row of placed up harnesses tied with rope. “These harnesses shall be your future tools meant to be used alongside your ODM-gear, modified to each recruits specifications, if you lose it, don’t expect another one.” Sadies explained.

In the distance Dora could see two more instructors on upper levels just above their training grounds. They were probably sent there by the higher ups within the Cadet Corp to monitor the new blood. Just taking a single distant look at the two men’s faces, she could almost instantly recognize that the two were nothing like Sadies, then again, most people were not like Sadies.

A snap back to reality. “First row, forwards!” Sadies commanded and Dora paid attention once more, taking a step closer towards their future ODM-gear. “All of you in your respective harnesses, now. The objective for today will be managing to keep your balance for a set amount of time. Today, it’ll be a minute, tomorrow, five. Afterwards, for the next week, you will be training in these non-stop to continuously keep yourself balanced and ready. Now move it!”

In a haste the front row broke formation and quickly got to their positions, officials guided each cadet to their designated spot and fastened them in. Dora paid attention to how they did it all, she’d seen displays of ODM maneuverability a few years ago, staring from the distance as Garrison soldiers would climb atop the wills in a moment's notice, not even fazed by the sudden altitude shift.  _ ‘They made it all look so easy, as if anyone could do it.’ _

Once fastened, the cadets were slowly lifted up by ropes off the ground. Immediately Dora struggled to balance herself, feeling herself quickly begin to sway forwards and backwards. Many of her fellow cadets immediately began falling over, nearly hitting their heads on the solid dirt beneath them had they not been caught by the handlers. Dora, fortunately, did not have such an experience. Stretching out her arms, she turned herself slight sideways, while still swaying around in the harness, there was more balance when using her arms as counterweights, knowing how to shift her weight appropriately.

Of the first row, only a handful managed to make it without stumbling or falling over at all. The whole ordeal lasted around twenty minutes or so before Instructor Sadies ordered the handlers to take a step back and leave the recruits to their own devices. For a whole minute, they were supposed to stand balanced and not fall at all. Any who did, would fail their very first introductory lesson and did not belong in Humanity’s frontlines.

For Dora, it had become somewhat easy at that point, she had effectively managed to keep herself straight for a full 20 minutes, rather than just one, and it seemed Sadies noticed. Yet she wasn’t the only one. Alongside her were also other recruits like Sasha and Connie, the latter of which struggled with it himself, falling over the first few times yet generally getting the hang of it pretty quick, the former however did not even have any problems from the get go. By that point, Sasha practically made the harness a makeshift swing for herself to rock back and forth with ease.

She breathed a sigh of relief when Sadies finally had the handlers pull them down from the poles and the cadets all unfastened themselves before the next row had gotten its placements all set up.

“Schulze, Braus, Springer, well done. Keep that up and you’ll be flying in the air in no time.” That was a genuine surprise if ever there was one. Sadies seemed to drop the harsh drill instructor act for a moment to give them genuine praise. Maybe he wasn’t so bad after all.

The second row proved much more successful, where Dora’s group mainly had the trio of her, Connie and Sasha, the others quickly managed to catch on to what they were doing to keep themselves at balance. She could see Jean and the Marco boy from yesterday getting fastened up. To their credit, both of them did practically the same as her, managing to keep themselves from falling face first during the entire session, though neither managed to get to the level of Sasha’s current skill it seemed.

It was the third row that showed the most promise this day. Marcel and several other recruits performed admirably, showing not only competence, but skill. The most prominent member currently being Mikasa, who was swinging in her harness as if she had been using it her entire life. It almost made it comical then that right after her all attention became diverted to Eren Jaeger, who was busy falling face first into the ground for what felt like the ump-teenth time.

“Jaeger, what seems to be the issue here?!” Sadies was back in fashion faster than ever.

“I don’t know Sir! I just… can’t keep myself from falling.” there was a desperation in Jaeger’s voice, as if he was openly begging the instructor to explain his failings to him. Strange, she would have never expected someone like him to have this much trouble with ODM-gear.

Sneers and heckling insued. Only the other day many of the recruits were flocking around Jaeger as if he was some sort of great war hero, now he was just the corps’ laughing stock it seemed. The Instructor didn’t even attempt to stop him, yet a few held their laugh, one of whom was Jean, which proved the most surprising to Dora since their little argument before.

“Hmph. You have big dreams Jaeger. But those dreams don’t mean shit when you can’t back them with your actions. Maybe I should just send you out of here right now! I hear being a turnip farmer is quite the profitable venture.” Sadies’ words visibly struck a chord with Jaeger, and the boy got back to his feet as quick as he could.

“No, don’t!” Eren chimed in immediately. “I’ll pass this, I swear! I just need more time is all.”

Failing on your first attempts at anything was nothing to be ashamed of, in fact it was quite natural. The first row of recruits felt no shame in slowly getting acquainted with their gear. The final objective for all of them was to be as acquainted with their ODM’s as any human could be, using it as merely another part of their body. In any endeavor, the first steps are always the hardest, yet it was perhaps the dichotomy between cadets right beside him like Marcel, that Mackensen boy, and even Mikasa, that made people focus in on Eren’s failure so much.

Eren was given an extra five or so minutes to try and attempt a full minute test without failing, yet to no avail, and soon the next row came in, with Jaeger going back into the ranks, his head low in shame. He was given an ultimatum, learn by tomorrow how to properly balance himself in a harness, or be pulled out immediately.

The training continued for a good while afterwards, as there were several more rows of recruits to go, yet as time went by the less it took for them to deal with a full row, until eventually, the day’s training was done, and they were dismissed.

* * *

**Several Hours Later…**

There are few things more relaxing after a hard day’s work and a lukewarm meal than laying down on your bed and slowly drifting off to sleep for some well-needed shut-eye. That was exactly what Mackensen had been trying to do for a good half hour or so now. Perhaps he would have been successful in it if one Eren Jaeger had not been hounding the entire barracks for help in his troubles. It was all a rather grading experience.

“Please Jean, I’m just asking here.” he truly must have been desperate if he turned to Jean of all people for help.

“Then maybe you should have thought about being a clutz before you joined up with the Cadets.” Jean retorted. Of course, it wasn’t really in his nature to help others it seems. Only looking out for the one person that matters.

“Come on Jean, he’s asking you nicely, please just help us and give Eren some pointers, you’re really good with the harnesses.” Armin came to his friends defense.

Unfortunately for them both, Jean was having none of it, and stormed out of the barracks, waving them off with not even a hint of consideration. With the amount of despair in his eyes, Gabriel had thought the boy ready to give up on it all and actually take up a life as a turnip farmer. But the flames of determination were not so easily snuffed out in the eyes of Eren Jaeger, and he marched on undeterred, Armin quick in tow.

“Marcel…” the boy spotted his next victim, which just so happened to be Gabriel’s bunkmate right above him. “Please, you have to help me, I can’t fail tomorrow or else Sadies is gonna-”

“Kick you out, I know.” Marcel cut him off quickly. “Listen Eren, I’m sorry but I really don’t know how I can help you. The best you can do it right now is train a bit more and get ready for tomorrow. Do your best man.” even after just two days in the Cadets, Marcel had put himself up as a man who didn’t say no to any requests for help or assistance, so when Jaeger heard the words coming from the older boy’s mouth, well, Gabriel could see him fighting back the urge to start screaming.

“I’ve been  _ doing _ my best. I did my best back there for an hour and still nothing. How did you all make it look so easy?”

“Talent, skill, knowledge, patience, determination, just to name a few.” Gabriel finally chimed into the conversation, no longer able to pretend like he was going to sleep. “Though in my case, it does also help that I’ve worked with ODM gear before.” he spoke the fact as if it was common knowledge, only to have his three other conversation partners gawk at him.

“What?! You already used ODM gear?” Armin’s mouth was agape. “I-I thought it was only supposed to be allowed to military personnel.”

“Well yes, but you’d be surprised at what MP’s are willing to give up for another round at the gambling table.” Gabriel explained.

“So you just  _ bought _ ODM gear?” Marcel asked, his brow raised in curiosity more than anything.

“I gave it back of course, made sure to use it on my estate so that no one could see me. The man I rented from basically wasn’t all that bad, would have been a shame to see him sent to a firing squad.” Marcel and Armin seemed unnerved at the mention of that, execution must rub them the wrong way, but in all honesty Gabriel was more than used to it.

Jaeger however, was more focused on one thing. “So then you have more experience than anyone right? Can you help me? Please Gabriel.” he couldn’t even count the amount of times he had heard the word ‘Please’ leave Eren’s lips this day. It was a far sight from the brash and bold image he had cut of himself yesterday.

Yet just like yesterday, Gabriel was not willing to go along with Jaeger’s connotations. “No.” he rose up from his bed, being careful not to hit his head in the process. “You don’t need my help Jaeger. Like Marcel said, the best you can do is focus on tomorrow and do your best.”

“I said-”

“I know what you said. And what  _ I’m  _ saying is that we can’t help you. Honestly though, if someone like Armin can do it, I’m shocked you’re having so much trouble.”

“You know, you’re actually right. Why haven’t you asked Armin for help Eren?”

“Oh well-... I wouldn’t really do that, I’m not very skilled, I-I just barely managed it today.” Armin stuttered himself away from the conversation before Eren grabbed him by his shoulder.

“They’re right Armin! Come on, you and Mikasa can help me!” as if struck by a bolt of inspiration, new life was being breathed into Eren Jaeger’s hopes and dreams.

“I’m surprised you haven’t asked him about it soon-” before Gabriel could even finish his sentence the two bolted out the door, no doubt in search for the third member of their little trio. “And he’s gone.”

The thought of Eren being too up his own ass and focusing on his failure to the point where he couldn’t even see the talents of his own friends made Gabriel’s image of the boy deteriorate to say the least, but he could hold it against him honestly. He was panicking, clear as day, no doubt anyone would if their one goal in life would be dashed away so half-heartedly, and so early on as well.

“You think we should have helped him either way?” Marcel asked from atop the bunk bed.

“No, like I said, you’re right, there’s no way we could have helped him any more than Mikasa or Armin could have. And if by tomorrow he doesn’t pass, well then maybe it’s better he get laid off. We’re not some common baker’s boys here, we’re going to be fighting against Titans, and anyone not ready for that task shouldn’t be here.”

There was a silence between the two, he recognized it immediately as Marcel agreeing with him, at least internally. “I guess so.” was all he could muster, before something apparently popped into his mind. “Oh, speaking of, did you see-”

“Yes, I saw her.” The black mop of hair that was Mikasa’s head peeking out from outside the window was nothing new to the boys in the barracks. She had been staying there ever since Eren and Armin left the mess hall. Upon another look on the far-end window though, she vanished, no doubt running to rejoin Eren and Armin’s company.

_ ‘You have yourself a boon more useful than any cadet here Jaeger, how you don’t see it in the girl is beyond me.’ _

* * *

For many of the recruits, their duties were over for today, but for Dora, her work was just beginning. The Instructor assigned her to watch storage, why exactly, she had no clue,  _ ‘Must have just been a random pick.’ _ she thought. It didn’t take away from the boredom, but she held on some hope it wouldn’t be a recurring thing for her to do.

In the filled and dimly lit room of the storage unit, Dora brought her candle light closer to once more inspect if everything was in order. Meticulously counting every piece of equipment and double checking, this was her fifth time going about it all, if only to just past the time. Just like the last four times, everything was here and accounted for.

If only there was a clock here somewhere to check the time, but she supposed the cadet corps was not so considerate to be putting anything like that inside their storage cabin. Most probably she would have already passed out and fallen asleep on the table, were it not for her innate fear of Sadies coming in at any second. The probability of it was slim to none, yet still, there was always a chance, and Dora did not want to run five kilometers in the courtyard like Sasha did yesterday. The lids on her eyes felt heaving by the second, she also felt a yawn coming in.

A knock suddenly came from the door, giving her a jolt of energy as she swung her eyes open. She didn’t really know what military protocol was for someone knocking on the storage building's door. Should she inquire who it is? Should she keep it closed? Should she just open it up right away? A million different questions popped into Dora’s mind in only a moment yet no answers came alongside them, so in the end she’d just wing it.

“Who is it?” she called out, doubtful that it was Instructor Sadies that was knocking.

Soon enough the door lazily squeaked open and two pairs of heads peeked through, their eyes meeting Dora’s quickly after an initial glance around the interior of the cabin. “Visitors.” Mina hummed, the twin-tailed girl being the first to enter, with the reddish brown Sasha’s head peeking in soon after. “Thought we might see how you’re doing.”

“ _ And _ we brought some snacks.” Sasha interjected, bringing up a small bag of what she assumed was food.

“I’m sure those snacks were completely well earned as well, and not stolen from the mess hall because you were hungry Sasha.”

“It’s fine, no one will notice a few wheat crackers gone here and there.” Sasha responded quickly, placing the bag down on the table Dora was sitting near.

She met Mina after inductions yesterday as they sat together in the mess hall, afterwards introductions weren’t needed and the two quickly began talking. A well-intentioned and kind girl, it was a rather simple case of them forming a connection rather immediately. Sasha was a different case entirely, as the two met her in the dorms yesterday evening, thoroughly exhausted and embarrassed after two fiascos forced her to be the semi-laughing stock of that day. Needless to say, she welcomed any and all positive interactions.

Despite being their senior of about 3 years, Dora appreciated how quickly she was able to find someone to at least hang out with. Back in her days as a small kid as well as during her time in the outskirts of Shiganshina, she never really had any problems with finding a group of other kids to be around. Mina was an enjoyable person to be around, shy and sweet would be the best words to describe her, it was easy for Dora to quickly attach herself to the younger girl, and from her interactions with Sasha the other night, it seemed she had a habit of making easy friends with others.

“Tried to pilfer some water as well but no luck on that.” Mina said.

“Dried wheat crackers it is then.” Dora responded, opening up the bag, there were about ten in total, the majority of which would go to Sasha no doubt whilst they weren’t looking, but it was still the thought that counts. “I hope Sadies never puts me in charge of the kitchen.” she commented.

“Man, I can’t believe Sadies put you here on our second day of all times. I’d go insane being stuffed up in here all night.” Mina helped herself onto the table, sitting at its edge while Sasha dragged a nearby stool over.

“Worst part about it all is I’m not even close to done here. I’m supposed to wait until I’m relieved by one of the other instructors, which is only going to happen around midnight if I’m remembering correctly.”

“You sure you didn’t do anything bad to piss Sadies off? Oh! You weren’t caught sneaking in here to find yourself some extra rations were you?” Sasha asked, no matter what it seemed that food was always on that girl's mind.

“This is an equipment storage room Sasha, not a food locker. And no, at least I don’t think I managed to get on the Instructor’s bad side.” she thought back to her first interaction with the man during her induction. Thinking back on it, he very clearly picked out certain recruits in that first speech of his, noting their flaws, talking about it openly, what to expect, what to overcome. In his own strange way she could immediately recognize Sadies as a man who rarely meant the things he said out in the open, as if he was a completely different person below what could be seen. Still, she had no plans on trying to get that other side out any time soon. They weren’t apprentice woodworkers here or simple farmhands, they were soldiers in the making, and a firm hand is needed in a world like this.

Another set of knocks caused the three girls to jump in surprise. “Oh no…” Sasha muttered. “You don’t think-”

“Relax.” she told the girl. “It’s probably just some of the recruits from the other years coming to leave off their gear… Probably.” Dora’s assurances didn’t seem to quite bolster either of the girls spirits, just in case, they both moved a bit further away from the door to the sides, so they wouldn’t be immediately seen.

She approached the wooden door and opened to see a trio of her fellow cadets looking at her with desperate eyes, the harsh yellow sun of the evening attacking her for a moment. Eren, Armin and Mikasa all stood in front of her, the former of whom had the same determined look in his eyes.

“Schulze, please, I need my harness right now. Do you mind if we come in so I can find it in storage. Mikasa and Armin are gonna help me pass the test tomorrow.” Jaeger at practically a thousand words a minute, there was a clear panic in his voice.

“What? Eren what are you talking about?” she asked the boy and herself as well, immediately becoming confused at this apparent surprise gathering she was holding all of a sudden. The realization and recollection from this morning hit quickly however. “Oh wait, yes I see now. Alright, come in.”

“Thanks Dora, we don’t want to be a bother so we’ll be in and out before you know it.” Armin said apologetically, she liked the boy well enough from the few times she had heard him talk, soft-spoken and shy like Mina but unfortunately without the outwardly friendly demeanor.

“It’s fine, I can get it for you.” She opened up the doors for the three and went to the back where all the early-cadet equipment was held. One thing she did in the earlier hours of her being here was make mental and written down notes of which harnesses belonged to what recruit, being symbolized by a pair of four digit serial numbers on the sides.

“Thanks Schulze, I really need to-” Eren stopped himself noticing the two other girls that were already in the storage cabin before them. “Sasha, Mina, what are you two doing here?” he asked.

“Hey guys.” Mina greeted them with a wave and a smile while Sasha tried to hide the food on the table.

“I could ask you three the same question. You know that recruits shouldn’t be operating training stations after their designated periods, right? Free training is only for the later years.” Dora retorted quickly before either of her two friends could respond, her voice echoing from the other side of the small cabin whilst pillaging through crates of equipment.

The deeper in she got, the less she could hear of the conversation happening behind her, so she focused more of her efforts on finding Jaeger’s gear.  _ ‘There you are.’ _ eventually, she spotted Eren’s serial code, 5761, on one of the harnesses, and grabbed it, quickly returning to her fellow cadets from her jungle of boxes. “Got it, here you go Eren. I’d offer to help you but Sadies has grounded me here.”

“Thanks Dora, I appreciate it, you’re a lot more helpful than that idiot Jean.” it was clear in Eren’s voice that his gratitude was sincere, though she could expect that from someone like him. Brazzen and bold, he was not the first person she knew who had all the traits of either a brave hero or a suicidal lunatic.

“That’s OK!” Mina quickly jumped in. “Dora, me and Sasha can fill in for you while you help Eren. There, problem solved.”

“Huh… I guess that could work.” she said, handing over the harness to Jaeger.

“Are you sure about this Mina? I don’t want Sadies catching us and forcing me to do another 100 laps.” Sasha’s voice was shaky all of a sudden upon her recollection of yesterday's events. 

“You can have my portion of the wheat crackers, Sasha.” Dora suggested, knowing exactly the motivation she needed to go through with Mina’s plan. On the turn of a dime the girl stopped her shy attitude and saluted them.

“No one’s gonna come in or out on our watch!” she declared boldly, before jumping at the cracker bag on the table.

“Then it’s settled, thanks girls.” With that matter settled, Dora turned back to the trio of her fellow cadets. “Let’s go, we’ll make a soldier out of you yet Eren.”

* * *

As a child, Gabriel was known to the members of his estate as an intensely curious little boy, always scrounging himself up in places he shouldn’t be in, asking strange questions no one else would, and so on. This curiosity unfortunately never left him, and today it had once more gotten the better of him. After storming out of the barracks, him and Marcel continued to talk about how strange it was for someone like Eren to not be able to perform even the most basic of techniques, it was difficult of course, but when broken down still as simple of a step as one could take. Eventually, Reiner and Bertholdt joined in the conversation as well, and Gabriel began feeling guilty of outright rejecting Jaeger the way he did.

Perhaps it was because he did so just after Jean’s refusal, making him connect the dots further on his behavior, but he knew himself well enough to know that he was surely not so pompous to compare himself to an arrogant donkey of a man that Jean was. Yet while his thoughts and complaints went mainly on deaf ears, the guilt only continued to pile on.

Eventually, Gabriel just wanted to come and see how Jaeger was doing with his training.  _ ‘Mikasa is clearly well-versed with the whole contraption enough to know how to use it, and she’s more than willing to help Eren out in that regard, so is Armin. Yet while I wouldn’t call Armin an expert as well, he still managed to pass today’s course, unlike Jaeger.’ _

To his surprise, Gabriel found the courtyard being filled with not three recruits, but four. Said fourth cadet being the Schulze girl.  _ ‘Nevermind, it seems Jaeger finally found someone willing to help him.’ _

“Come on Eren, extend your arms, focus your hips forward and keep yourself moving. Don’t twitch or swing your legs, it’ll only get you off balance quicker.” the girl explained.

Gabriel felt content knowing that at least someone was willing to help him, not just Mikasa and Armin, so he was ready to stand back and watch it unfold on its own. That was, of course, until Jaeger swung forwards violently, hitting his head on a rock. That gotta hurt, Gabriel could practically hear the crack of Jaeger’s skull hit the hard ground, for a moment he had thought the boy may have just inadvertently killed himself, were it not for the grunts of pain coming off him seconds later.

“Eren!” Mikasa flew towards her friend, as did Armin, the former managing to catch him before he hit his head on the ground a second time from bouncing-back.

Schulze, on the other hand, merely stood at the sides, sighing in a tired fashion and rubbing her brow. She was here for some time now, from what Gabriel could gather on the time passed at most an hour. He could understand anyone getting tired at the situation.

“Well, I’m glad to see the warm-ups are going well.” he commented, slowly approaching the scene.

The older girl of the four immediately turned around while Mikasa and Armin seemed far more preoccupied with Eren. Armin quickly cut the bindings of the harness lose to not have Eren be hanging upside down. This only resulted in the poor boy flopping the other half of his body on the ground unceremoniously, still, a better display than a few seconds ago.

“You alright Eren, haven’t scrambled your brains yet?” he asked the boy currently occupied with numbing the pain of his head.  _ ‘A boy that thick headed, I’m surprised he wasn’t used to being dropped face first already.’ _ he thought, before turning his attention to the fourth recruit he didn’t know about yet. “I don’t think we’ve met, you must be Dora Schulze.”

“And you’re Gabriel Mackensen, right? I saw your little stunt yesterday before you started sitting with that Marcel boy.” the girl responded as politely as she could, it was clear on her face that pleasantries was something she was too tired for currently.

“Indeed I am, a pleasure.” he extended a hand, wanting to come off at least a bit friendlier in this situation.

“I would say likewise, but there’s nothing pleasurable in this situation.” Dora said, shaking his hand.

“Eren, you’re bleeding!” Mikasa spoke up to the boy desperately trying to get himself back on his feet.

“It’s f-fine, I can still… do this.” Jaeger grit his teeth and slowly got back on his feet.

Gabriel sighed, he predicted something like this happening, which is why he brought a clean piece of cloth with him in his pocket. “Hang on Jaeger.” he called out, approaching three. “Here, put this on your head to stop the bleeding.”

“Thanks…” Eren picked up the rag and did as he was told. While he and the other two were focusing on Eren, Dora seemed to have her attention on something else, particularly, Eren’s harness. “What’s wrong Schulze. I didn’t break it did I?” Eren asked.

“No, you didn’t.” she responded rather matter-of-factly, a hand placed on her chin and the other to her hip, pondering on something whilst narrowing her eyes. “You guys stay here, I’ll be back in a few minutes.” Dora said, unattaching the harness to the ropes and going away in a quick manner.

“What? Hey, where are you going?” Armin called out, but she was already too far away to hear him most likely, causing the blonde haired boy to sigh.

“We can focus on that later. For now, Armin, can you go and get some bandages? We gotta wrap Eren’s head up here.” Gabriel instructed.

“Oh, okay, yeah, I can do that!” He responded, quickly getting up and running the opposite direction.

With the exit of the second cadet, only Eren, Gabriel and Mikasa were left, the latter of whom were busy focusing their attention on Jaeger. As much as he could joke to himself on the boy’s many falls this day, it was still a rather bad hit he just received, so best to be safe and have him rest a bit before any more damage could be done. Mikasa seemed to be of a similar mindset, following Gabriel’s footsteps and leading Jaeger along to a large rock he could sit on.

“It’s fine… I’m fine… I can still keep going.” Jaeger muttered to himself, yet it was still in earshot of the two recruits carrying him.

“No Eren, you need to rest.” Mikasa spoke up. “There’s no use in keeping you going if you’re just going to hurt yourself further.”

“She’s right Jaeger, my advice is stop being so stubborn and listen to the girl.” Gabriel added on, slowly lowering the boy onto the rock.

“Mackensen… why are  _ you _ here anyways? I thought you said you couldn’t, and didn’t, want to help Eren.” Mikasa asked as her friend was preoccupied calming the no-doubt still throbbing pain to the side of his head.

“Well, you’re right there, I did say that.” Gabriel admitted. “But frankly, I felt bad, and after a talk with Reiner, Marcel and Bertholdt, I think we might have figured out something to help you get ready for tomorrow Eren.” that caused the injured boy to immediately perk up.

“Really? You did?” The rag covered one of Jaeger’s eyes, yet the one that wasn’t looked at Gabriel with puppy dog eyes.

“Yes, really. Once we’re done here, you can go back to the barracks and have a talk with them.”

Eventually, Armin came back with the bandages and Mikasa wrapped them around Eren’s head, the bleeding had stopped by that point as it seemed it wasn’t that deep a cut, but it was best to be sure so it didn’t open up or start bleeding again. Soon after, so too did Schulze, carrying Jaeger’s harness slung over her shoulder.

“Alright, try it now.” she said.

Propping him up, Armin connected the rope to the sides of the harness and began propping him up. Just in case, Mikasa and Gabriel both stood to the sides just a little closer to where the stand was, ready to jump in and catch Eren should he fall again, which was expected at this point. To their shock however, there was no fall, no tumbling, no violent swinging. Rather, Jaeger easily managed to balance himself out almost instantly.

The silence was pungent in the air, and Gabriel could have sworn he heard a cricket chirping between the light swings of Eren’s ropes back and forth. Soon enough however, that very same silence was replaced by cheers from Jaeger, as he triumphantly raised his arms up high and began laughing from pure joy. Armin soon joined him, as did Mikasa somewhat, letting out a small smile on the corner of her lips, a far cry from her usual stone-faced demeanor.

Schulze however did not join in the celebrations, merely standing a good few meters away, her arms crossed with a knowing smile on her lips.

“That was a rather drastic shift.” Gabriel walked over to the girl. “I assume you did something to affect this outcome?”

“More so, I noticed something.” Dora corrected. “His harness’ winches were screwed on improperly, causing there to be no resistance upon lifting him up that you would usually get with all of our equipment.” as she explained to him, it all suddenly became clear on why Jaeger was having so much trouble.

“Good eye Schulze, and rather smart of you to know how to properly fix it all.”

“I doubt I could have survived as long as I did without at least knowing how to screw a bolt on properly, noble boy.”

“Fair enough.”

* * *

**The Next Morning…**

Schulze and Mackensen both joined the crowd of cadets who gathered around Chief Instructor Sadies. Opposite to him, Eren Jaeger, strapped to his harness and ready to be pulled up. There was a rather strange aura of confidence to Jaeger that day, something his actions yesterday no doubt caused.

After their little success in the courtyard yesterday, Schulze and the other parted ways, and Gabriel led both Eren and Armin back to the barracks, saying their goodbyes to Mikasa as well. There, they met back up with Reiner, Bertholdt and Marcel, who seemed to have concocted their own scheme on how to help out Eren for tomorrow.

Eventually, the six of them all traversed up the hills overlooking the training camp, and found themselves overlooking a large crystal esque lake where the moon shinned brightly in-between the trees around them. It was utter serenity, and there Eren could find his peace and the confidence he needed to go through with today, Marcel granting him words of encouragement, while Reiner and Bertholdt both made him known they’d be cheering him on. Mackensen did not do anything of that sort, choosing rather to trust in Jaeger’s own determination and abilities, and see if he truly can make it as a soldier.

More and more recruits began huddling around Sadies and Jaeger as the handlers slowly lifted him up.

“Moment of truth Eren.” he could hear Schulze whispering to herself, yet shared in the sentiment. In some strange way, this whole debacle had caused Eren to be viewed as a bit of an underdog by many of the 104th, with the others choosing to start cheering on Eren almost immediately as he was being lifted up.

For a few breathless moments, it almost seemed like he wouldn’t be able to do it, and the Cadet Corps held their breaths for Jaeger.  _ ‘Come on boy, don’t fail us now.’ _ Gabriel thought. He had a stake in this all now, having participated in Marcel’s little spiritual trek up the hill last night, and the others felt the same. The only one he could see amongst the crowds not cheering Eren on, even somewhat, was Jean, for obvious reasons.

Jaeger pushed up his arms to the side and swung himself forward, regaining control of the harness. It seemed to take him much more effort than yesterday, but soon enough he was off the ground, and more importantly, successfully balancing himself between the ropes. A full minute of tension then soon passed, before Sadies blew his whistle.

“TEST OVER!” he bellowed. “Jaeger… you’ve passed.”

The cheers that erupted near overshadowed Eren’s own boisterous cry of joy. LIke last time, he had swung his arms up in the air in triumph before quickly bringing them back when noticing a loss of balance.

“Alright, that’s enough!” Sadies cut the celebrations short. “Just because Jaeger’s done for today doesn’t mean you all aren’t, so get yourselves ready with the harnesses.”

Moving quickly through the crowds, Gabriel spotted Dora in the front rows lifting up her hand. “Sir, a request!” she yelled out.

“What is it Schulze?”

“With your permission Sir, could we take a look at Eren’s harness for a moment?” her request not only raised the brows of Sadies, but most of the cadets. Yet, somehow, that wasn’t the end of it.

“And why is that, cadet?” Sadies asked, his tone a mix of genuine curiosity and strange annoyance.

“Please Sir, just call it a hunch.”

A moment of silence passed before Sadies huffed and gave in to Schulze’s request. Unfastening the harness from the ropes, Sadies inspected the harness himself, before stopping at a certain point.

“Well well well… it seems your hunch was right Schulze.” confused sounds came from the crowd, and Eren included. “I see now why you were having such a hard time Jaeger. Your gear was sabotaged, someone unscrewed the wenches on your harness.”

A stir of questions soon ensued, mainly in hushed whispers from within the crowds, yet among them was Gabriel as well, who navigated across to Dora. “I thought you said you fixed the thing.” he whispered to the girl’s ear.

“I did.” she whispered back, crossing her arms. “But then I put it back the way it was. Sadies told me he wanted everything as they left it after all.”

“So then…” Gabriel thought on the situation for a moment, before coming to his conclusion. “Jaeger managed to pull it off even with faulty equipment…”

“It’s a wonder what the mind can do when backed against the wall. No doubt whatever you did helped him as well, but that one drop of success made him sure of his actions, just enough to fight against the upwards hill in his wake.”

“Hmph.” Gabriel chuckled. “You’re a clever girl, Schulze.”

No matter what could come of this revelation, there was something sure that quickly spread through the minds of the 104th, Jaeger’s determination against unfair odds was valorant, and commendable. Perhaps he himself will think twice before doubting the boy.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3: Bonds**

A month of training had officially passed for the 104th Cadet Corp. Though grueling and challenging, their first steps to becoming full blown soldiers had been taken. Constant physical exercise alongside scaled training courses in prototype ODM-gear was beginning to form them into people much more ready to deal with the adversities that lie in their future.

“Atten-tion!” Chief Instructor Sadies bellowed out to the group of cadets. “Today will be your first course of Close-Combat training! You shall be put into pairs of two that will take turns, one shall be the aggressor, the other, a defender.” he pulled out a rather large hunting knife from his back pocket. “I shall now proceed to demonstrate the maneuvers you shall all be practising today!” he said before quickly scanning the first row of cadets, picking one out with a sunken steel gaze. “Arlert! Get up here.”

The blonde haired boy practically started drilling himself into the ground from how much he was shaking at Sadies’ announcement, yet still he made his way towards the Chief Instructor’s scaffolding. Standing opposite to Instructor Sadies by about a few feet or so, it almost looked like Armin was about to be stabbed. And by the look on his face, Armin believed that whole-heartedly.

“Now...” he threw the knife over to the cadet, who managed to grab it at the last second, thankfully not by the noticeably sharp blade. Extending his arms out, Sadies peered into Armin’s soul, “Stab me.”

“W-what…” Armin replied sheepishly, “Sir, i-isn’t that-”

**“I SAID STAB ME!”**

“Hayaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa-” the recruit screamed his lungs out and charged at his Instructor, knife in both hands. Sadies stood still as a statue, openly welcoming his attacker with both arms still reached out.

He waited until the very last moment, until Arlert was just within reach. With one hand he grabbed a hold of the boy’s wrist and with the other shoved him aside with a quick motion. The resulting push forced the boy to the ground quickly, yet Sadies did not stop there, and his grip on the boy’s wrist did not relent. Almost immediately as Arlert’s knees hit the ground he twisted the boy’s hand, forcing him to drop the knife and causing Armin to scream out in pain.

In only three simple motions, he had unarmed, incapacitated, and succesfully subdued his “opponent”. Another scream later, and Sadies soon let go of the boy, not wanting to drag out his pain any more. Turning back to his recruits, he stored the knife back in his coat.

“You’ll be grouped into pairs of two, each taking turns on their roles as an assailant and defendant. Your goal today will be general knowledge of basic hand-to-hand combat and successful eliminations of your opponent without being harmed. Dismissed!”

* * *

“Come on Jean, the Instructor’s say we have to have at least ten rounds today.” Marco tried to convince his partner to go on, yet it seemed he was having none of it.

“Oh please, what do you think we’ll  _ actually _ need this for, huh Marco? Everyone knows combat training doesn’t mean jack in the Cadets. The only thing that  _ matters _ is the ODM-gear.” Jean remained persistent in his attempts to shirk his responsibilities, holding the attacker knife hostage in his hands and strolling about lazily as Marco followed him.

Marco sighed, giving up on his attempts to convince Jean into actually putting in more than the minimum amount of effort. Somewhere else in the courtyard however, another pair was having different sets of difficulties.

“ _ So, Schulze, have you prepared yourself for my incoming relentless onslaught? _ ” Gabriel asked in a deep voice about a few octaves too low for Dora’s ears.

“You’re finding way too much entertainment out of this, you know that?” she responded, tapping her foot on the ground in impatience.

“ _ Ah, but that is where you are wrong my dear girl. _ ”

“Don’t call me that.” at this point, it was getting rather grading.

“ _ I shall ask once more, Schulze. _ ” he pointed the wooden knife towards her. “ _ Are you ready? _ ”

“Yeah, yeah, just come at me already. And stop it with that-”

“ _ En garde! _ ” Gabriel charged at her before she could even finish her sentence. With a decisive lunge the knife came quickly towards the pure center of her chest. Reacting as quickly as her own body would allow her, she stepped out of the way of her assailant, performing a sweeping motion with her feet towards Gabriel’s legs.

A solid hit, but it didn’t look to be enough to deter her peer. A quick fall was followed up by Gabriel sticking the landing and jumping himself backwards, this time swinging his knife towards her in a large motion. She barely managed to catch up in time, missing the knife by just a hair, quite literally. While somewhat clumsy, she immediately recognised that her partner had at least some form of technique, very aggressive, very fast. On someone with slower reflexes, it may just have worked.

Another lunge from Gabriel sent her on the defensive, yet as they say, the best offense is a good defense. She grabbed a hold of the boy’s wrist, pushing his arm further past her whilst getting some footing behind him. Once again she sweeped his legs and brought her elbow down on his back, causing him to go crashing down.

Her grip still holding tightly onto Gabriel’s wrist, she twisted it hard to force him into dropping the weapon, ending the fight definitively.

“There, are you done now?” she asked, slightly out of breath from it all.

“ _ It would seem I have underestimated your abilities, Schulze. _ ” Gabriel said, the voice being somewhat muffled due to his head still being face first in the ground, though eventually he did turn it slightly when he ran out of air no doubt. “ _ But do not think you have beaten me so- _ Ow, ow, ow, alright, alright fine I’ll stop with the voice now let go of my arm.”

The grip on Mackensen’s arm loosened as she let him get back on his feet. Dusting himself off, it looked as if the boy was barely fazed by their exchange of blows, or rather, her attempts to defend against his attacks.

“I’m impressed, you never struck me for the close-combat expert type.” he commented, wiping the dust off his uniform.

“Who says I am?” she responded. “I just copied what Sadies did. Helps that you and Armin have a similar tactic of attack it seems.”

“Now hold it right there, missy, that is a line too far. I’m pretty sure Daz is more well versed in combat than Arlert is…” he turned to the blonde haired boy some few meters away from them, “No offense Armin!”

“It’s ok…” Armin yelled back sheepishly, “I’m used to- AGH!” before being tackled and hit by Mina, who realized her actions just a bit too late.

“Oh my gosh, I’m so sorry Armin! I didn’t notice you weren’t paying attention.” she profusely apologized to the poor boy, who was currently squealing in pain on the ground.

“Well anyways…” Gabriel turned away from that sight. “Catch, now’s your turn.”

With the wooden knife in her hands, she walked a few feet away from Mackensen and got into a stance, both her arms at shoulder level, one hand open, the other holding the knife backwards. “You catch that from Sadies as well?” Gabriel asked before bringing up his own fists and legs parted ever so slightly.

“Watch and learn noble boy.”

She opened up her attack with a rush towards him, when in range, quick and precise jabs. To his credit, Gabriel seemed to be putting in far more effort here than he has been for the past few weeks, dodging every blow she threw at him. In the last month she had noticed the boy more or less dragging himself along with everyone in Lectures and training, just barely passing each course and session with an obvious amount of effort being left behind. It was strange, he never struck her as a rather lazy person, pompous and arrogant, definitely, but not so keen on scraping by in terms of scores.

The surprise then was far stronger when she saw a look of focus on the boy’s face, it seems he was rather keen on getting the upper hand in this fight.  _ ‘Fine then, if you’re going to start taking this seriously, then so will I.’ _ she thought, letting loose a set of swings with the knife.

The goal of each combatant during a set “round” is for either the attacker to successfully hit their opponent with their knife or for the defender to incapacitate their opponent. Rules however state that hits to a limb do not count, and attackers must focus on vital areas in the body such as the neck, head, or torso. Should the defender disarm the attacker at any point in the match and take the knife from them, the roles are reversed, as are the rules for each of them.

She stabbed towards him once more, aiming for where Gabriel’s heart was, only for the boy to seemingly perform the very same maneuver she had done on him. A side-step and quickly grabbing onto her wrist. Instead of pressing the advantage however, Gabriel chose a different tactic, she saw the boy’s hand quickly approaching upwards, ready to strike at her elbow and possibly incapacitate her hand and disarm her. A wise move, if she was being honest, but not fast enough. 

Grabbing the boy by his shoulder, she did yet another sweeping move to get him off his feet. With a spin she placed herself right in front of him and pushed herself and him forward, slinging Mackensen over her shoulder. With a loud thud and a cloud of dust soon rising from the ground, Gabriel hit the ground hard on his back. His head no doubt spinning from the pure confusion, Mackensen slowly opened his eyes to see Dora sitting right above him, the wooden knife above his throat.

“Dead.” she lightly tapped the boy’s throat with her knife before moving away and letting him get his bearings.

With a sigh, he once more got back on his feet and wiped away the dust and dirt on his uniform. “ _ Watch and learn _ , my ass. I don’t believe someone with your moves is self-taught Schulze.”

“I could say the same for you. Don’t think I’ve seen you enjoying yourself like this for a while now.” she balanced the tip of the knife on her index finger, slowly wobbling it around to gain balance of it. “Strange, never pegged you for a masochist Gabriel.”

“Oh please, I got eight more rounds to make my comeback, now toss me the knife.”

The rest of their sparring match went somewhat more evenly split between the two, with both of them sharing a win as both an attacker and defender, however Dora would eventually be the winner with the final score they tallied being 4-6 in her favor. Eventually, they were both then split of into new pairs on Sadies’ orders.

“Mackensen, you’re with Ackermann. Lenz, with Schulze. Get to it.”

As they got into position, she almost felt bad for Gabriel, who looked far more reserved than when he was taking Dora on. In comparison, she made a mental note not to go too hard on Christa as she had with Mackensen. While the petite girl was no pushover as much as someone like Armin or Daz, it was clear who was at an advantage of the two, this also proved true for the other pairing.

Mikasa however seemed far more focused on something, or rather someone, else. As ever, she always kept Eren in the corner of her eye. He himself was busy training with Reiner.

“Alright Mikasa,” Gabriel readied his knife at the girl. “You ready?”

Her eyes darted forward, back to Gabriel as her expression steeled ever so slightly. “Bring it.”

* * *

All Gabriel could do was gulp down his fear. “Alright… here I come!”

  
  


“And that’s how I broke my arm.” Gabriel explained, fiddling a bit with the wrap around his arm, it was nothing too major in reality, probably just a sprain, but by the Walls did it hurt.

“You know you could have just told us you fought Mikasa during combat training and ended it there.” Reiner exclaimed with a sigh.

“My dear Reiner, I’ll have you know I take that as an insult. We Mackensen’s trace our lineage as proud  _ autours  _ of storytelling from beyond even the creation of the Walls.”

“Wait, really?” Bertholdt asked with a raised brow of genuine curiosity.

“No.”

The four sat together on their regular mess hall table, at this point the 104th had more or less entrenched itself on who hung out with who, so there was no real point in trying to rock the boat. The group of Marcel, Bertholdt, Reiner and Gabriel were once also joined by Annie, however after she started sitting with the other girls, sticking mainly to Mina it seemed, which was understandable in all fairness.

“What about you Bertholdt?” Marcel spoke up, trying to move the conversation along. “Me and Reiner eventually got paired up with Annie, and that went about as well as you could expect.”

“Oh, well…” Bertholdt tried to recall the day’s events. “Well I first got paired up with Daz, we tried to do a few of the exercises, but…”

“Daz.” Gabriel immediately knew the answer.

“Yeah…” he exclaimed rather tiredly. “And then afterwards me and Sasha got paired together after she was with Connie, that was alright I suppose.”

“Speaking of,” Reiner noted, “where are those two? I’d think Sasha of all people wouldn’t be far off from here after today.”

“Sadies caught them fooling around during training.” Marcel explained, a rather grim look on his face.

“Oh those poor souls.” Gabriel commented. “Don’t tell me…”

“Twenty kilometers around the field.” Marcel continued to elaborate, much to the dismay of those sitting with him.

Reiner sighed. “I sometimes feel bad for those two, feels like the Instructor has it out for them.”

“Tell me about it.” Bertholdt replied.

Their conversation continued on as they ate, yet it was mainly Marcel and Gabriel that did most of the talking. While making for some good company in his eyes, Gabriel always did note how Reiner and Bertholdt were far from social when it came to many forms of communication. With Reiner, he chalked it up to general stoicism and lack of want, or perhaps need, to talk about unnecessary things for too long. Bertholdt however was a different story, where Reiner could perhaps be described as shy by those that don’t know him, Bertholdt was just that to the letter. He would hesitate to even compare him to Armin were it not for his skill far surpassing Arlert’s.

“Marcel.” a girl’s voice was heard interrupting the conversation, from behind Galliard was Krista, clad in her usual casual attire. “Can I talk to you for a moment?”

“Sure, what about?” Marcel responded. Christa quickly walked up to the boy and whispered something in his ear. “Uh… yeah, sure. I suppose we can do that.” he said, causing the girl to smile happily.

“Thanks. Sorry guys, mind if I steal him for a bit?” she turned to the three other cadets still sitting at the table, finally acknowledging their existence.

“Oh no please, don’t let us stop you.” Gabriel said, waving the two off. As soon as they were out of earshot, he immediately turned to Reiner and Bertholdt. “So... explanation?”

“Your guess is as good as mine.” Reiner answered.

“You don’t think the two of them huh?”

“Honestly, do you think that there would be  _ any _ person here who could manage to get together with Christa and not brag about it all day?”

“Probably not, but I still don’t think Marcel would be that type.”

“Fair enough I suppose. He’d be one lucky bastard if he did.” one of the rare few times Gabriel saw Reiner smile at all when he was talking about Christa, it was clear he had more than an affection for the girl.

The three pondered on the situation a bit, before another voice caught them off guard.

“Gabriel.” said voice being none other than Mikasa. “Can I talk to you for a moment?”

He gulped the same fear he felt a few hours ago and turned to look at the black haired girl. “Uh… yeah sure, I suppose.” taking a quick turn back to his two other friends, pleading with his eyes for a way to try and help him.

“Oh no please, don’t let us stop you.” Bertholdt said with a strange shy smile, waving Gabriel off. It was clear they weren’t going to be of any help, so he resigned himself to his fate. As he got up from his seat however, a thought occurred in his head.

_ ‘Was Bertholdt just… caddy towards me? Nevermind, an issue for another time.’ _

Following Mikasa outside, the two left the mess hall into the chilly autumn air. Outside, his fears from before were confirmed in seeing Sasha and Connie fight their way through the last few laps they had. Sasha was already somewhat used to it at this point, while Connie was struggling to still cling onto whatever pace he had left in him. Sadies probably made it clear, this wasn’t a walk, it was a run. Still, that was the least of his worries currently.

“How’s your arm?” the girl asked almost immediately, breaking the silence. It came so out of left field Gabriel had to take a moment to look down and see if it was still wrapped up the way it was.

“It’s fine, trust me when I say I had worse falls than this. I should be alright by tomorrow.”

“That’s good to hear.” there was genuine relief in Mikasa’s voice, it made him wonder just how much he had scared her when he had his little fall during training that morning. “I just wanted to apologize, it’s my fault you hurt yourself during training, I wasn’t paying attention, my mind was too focused on…” she trailed off for a moment but he knew perfectly well what she was going to say.

“Eren, yeah, I figured.” the way she cared for Jaeger reminded Gabriel often of his own sibling, his older brother was always dotting on him and wanted to keep him safe, yet something told him that Mikasa did not do it all just because she cared for Eren as just family.

“I guess it is pretty obvious, huh?” she admitted, never turning away from that same stone-faced expression, yet there were often little cracks here and there that eventually showed. “I know I should take being a soldier seriously, just like Eren and Armin are doing, but the thought of them getting hurt. I don’t like it.”

“There’s no shame in worrying for your friends Mikasa, especially family as close as you have.”

“There is when it causes others to get hurt by it. Which is why I wanted to apologize and ask you if there was any way I could make it up to you.” that caught him off guard. Apologizing was something he could at least understand, if a bit unneeded, but trying to ‘make up for it’ was going a step too far.

“I said it's fine Mikasa, really. Like I told you, I’ve had a million falls worse than this.” he tried to convince the girl but it was clear she was having none of it.

“No.” she replied simply, that same monotone voice that always followed after her words. “It was my fault you got hurt, I was being reckless. So please, tell me if there’s anything I can do to make up for it.”

For a moment he legitimately thought about it all, yet even if he did accept her offer, there was really nothing he needed that much help with. Dashing the thought away from his mind though, he responded. “Alright, tell you what. If I ever need anything I’ll be sure to ask you for help. How does that sound?”

The sight before him Gabriel could be hard pressed to be believed, but ever-so-slightly, he could see Mikasa shed a miniscule smile. “Yes, that sounds good.”

* * *

“Sasha… come on… we have to keep going…” Connie was barely able to speak through his ragged breaths, dragging both himself and his fellow cadet across the training grounds. They were quite literally on their last legs, with about 2 more laps left to go. This whole ordeal started whilst the sun was still up, yet evening fell long ago.

“It’s over for me Connie, leave me…” she said dramatically, letting her head down low. After so much exhaustion, it was tiring to even breathe.

“Shut up… no man… left behind…” he barely managed to mutter out before collapsing himself. His body finally succumbing to fatigue.

As they lay there on the ground practically dead, he let the cold dirt consume him as a ways to cool off. There was no point in talking no more, all that was left were the pained grunts and heavy breathing of them both. The moon parted the clouds to shine a light on them, hurting Connie’s eyes, yet it was then he heard something else, and Sasha did too. Not only did she hear, it seemed as if she smelled it as well. With newfound power, Sasha put her ear to the ground and began sniffing out something aggresively.

“Do you hear that Connie?” she spoke in all but a whisper.

“Hear what?” he replied.

“It’s…” she continued sniffing out something Connie was too exhausted to try and comprehend, yet her ensuing yell made it all the more surprising. “It’s food!” she leaped from the ground in an instant, her eyes red with killer intent.

“Sasha!” Connie yelled with every last bit of his strength.

“Eeek!” a girl’s scream soon came after.

“Watch out!” and another voice soon followed.

Managing to pick himself back up, Connie saw Sasha gorging herself on a large loaf of bread in the distance, next to her two of his other cadets, Christa and Marcel, stood nearly awestruck at the show of agility he wasn’t aware humans could have.

“Well, good to see at least one of you still has their strength.” Marcel said, picking both himself up and giving Christa a hand to get back on her feet.

“You guys? What are you two doing here?” he asked as the both of them approached Connie, who was still on the ground.

“Came to check up on you, you two haven’t eaten all day have you?” Marcel explained.

“Here, it’s not much but we managed to scrounge up a few things from the kitchen.” Christa handed a flask of water and the same loaf of bread Sasha yanked from them with her leap of lustful hunger.

The moment the food and water was in his hands he gasped in shock and disbelief. Quickly downing both the bread in only a few bites and watering it all down with the flask, he felt a calm feeling wash over him, as if all the pain was gone in but those few moments he was able to savor his meal. Looking back on Marcel and Christa, he did not see his equals or peers anymore, but two saviors who had come to lift him from death itself.

“You guys…” a moment of silence came after he had said those words, and Marcel and Christa looked at him strangely. He pulled the both to his side, hugging them tightly. “YOU’RE MY GUARDIAN ANGELS, YOU TWO!”

“Hey, hey, Connie slow down. It’s fine, really, we just-...” Marcel stopped himself after noticing something, “Wait, are you crying?”

“No!” Connie sniffed back the tears. He felt a hand lightly tap his back.

“It’s ok Connie, we’re just glad to see you’re both doing fine.” Christa said in a warm tone, that same goddess-like smile the 104th was so used to gracing her lips. Truly, she was an angel on this mortal coil of theirs.

“Fine? Yeah… yeah me and Sasha are-” the realization soon hit him. “Wait, where is Sasha?”

The three all turned to see Sasha hunched over on the ground in the fetal position, snoring loudly with a smile on her face and about a dozen crumbs still on her lips. From the look of her Connie could see the girl was still fantasizing about food, most likely meat.

“Out cold.” Marcel commented.

“Poor thing, you both must be so exhausted.” Christa said. “Let’s get you both back to the dorms, it’s high time you get some rest.”

“Yeah, that sounds… nice...” Connie said with a yawn before collapsing on his back, soon enough his own consciousness faded from him, and sooner than he could realise, Connie was out cold.

Marcel and Christa were the only ones left now alongside their unconscious cadets. It was a rather chilling sight, yet it was clear on her face that Christa was happy she was able to at least somewhat help them. Eventually, the two decided to take them both back to their respective dorms.

“Thank you Marcel, I really appreciate you coming to help me.” she turned to Marcel who was busy carrying Connie over his back as well as Sasha by her legs while Christa dragged the girl by her shoulders. “I would have called the other guys to help out as well but I don’t think we would have been able to sneak out as well as we did.”

“It’s alright, I’m happy to help.” he replied with a smile, to which Christa did the same.

“I’m glad to hear it, if you ever need anything, don’t hesitate to ask me, okay?”

“Don’t worry about it, anyone else would have done the same.”

Eventually they got to the girls’ dorm rooms first. “Come on Sasha, let’s get you to bed.” she said, waving goodbye to Marcel as the two parted ways, and Marcel led Connie back to the barracks and let the boy get his well-earned rest.

* * *

The night soon fell on the 104th’s training camp, and while everyone went back to their sleeping quarters, there was still one sound that could be heard thumping in the night. The moon shined across the clouds as Annie assaulted her target with a series of well-timed and well-targeted kicks. The wooden plank eventually chipped away, little by little, yet her onslaught did not stop, until eventually, her opponents entire top half was gone with one last great strike.

She let out a calming breath, steadying the pain in her knees and shins, before releasing her body from her stance. A calm spread itself over her mind, it was in time’s like this when she was reminded of home, and all those grueling hours of training she had to go through. In some sense, she truly missed the time she spent with her father. On other days however, the pain was only a reminder.

Her calm was quickly interrupted however when she heard a sigh. Immediately breaking into a defensive stance she swooped around to face whoever managed to sneak up on her.

“Honestly, I don’t know what your guys’ obsession with training after hours is. First Eren, then Jean, and then Marcel, now you Annie?” it was Dora, her fellow cadet from the 104th. From the looks of her, she was not quite in any mood for sleep either, yet as the lantern she was holding up illuminated her face she could see the bags under the girl’s eyes, no doubt a result of having to stay up so late for so many days.

“What are you doing out so late?” Annie asked immediately. Though she dropped from her stance, she was more than curious on how someone like Dora was able to sneak up on her so easily. In the less than month they’ve known each other, she didn’t exactly strike herself as a very agile or light-footed person.

“I could ask you the same. I told them all the same thing,  _ first-years shouldn’t be training after hours _ . is that really such a hard thing to understand?” he tone was more of an annoyed mother seeing her child up late at night than of a young girl forced to work the night shift.

Approaching the remnants of her sparring partner, Dora shone a light on the splintered remains. Once Annie herself managed to get a good look at it in the light, she was actually somewhat impressed at just how much of a chunk she was able to beat away at. At this point, she was used to training in the night, since the rest of her daily routine didn’t leave much free time open.

“Quite the kicks you got there, no wonder you managed to whoop Reiner and Marcel so handily.” she said with a smile, Annie quickly recollected her memories of this morning. First she was paired with Marcel, that boy always was a good fighter, even among the four of them, but nothing in comparison to her, and then eventually Reiner, who despite his size, didn’t prove much of a better match. “So, what’s your secret?”

“Secret?” she narrowed her eyes at Schulze, before realizing what she meant. It didn’t mean much though, she had no real interest in talking about her past, especially to some random girl she met only a month ago. “What’s it to you?”

“Oh come on Annie, don’t give me that. You mentioned back before Shiganshina you lived alone with your father, right? I assume he was the one who taught you how to fight like that?”

Annie sighed, she thought herself easier to read than this. “Yes, he did.” was all she would give her.

“Thought so.” Schulze looked almost proud of her little revelation, giving a rather noticeable grin. There were times when she didn’t really know what to think of this girl. On one hand she was far more hard-working than Mina, yet exhibited some of her traits as well, when once she can seem like a literary genius or reliable person, other times she’s practically an air-head, though the former happens more often. “Your dad must be proud.”

“I suppose so.” Ironically, their morning training course was actually the first time in years she actually used her father’s techniques against other people. She found some solace in the fact that she still wasn’t rusty in terms of beating down others.

“So can you teach me?” that question sent Annie’s head hurdling down a spiral of questions she frankly did not have the energy to ask for.

“Are you serious? You want to learn my fathers technique?” was all Annie could say, not believing what she was hearing. “You do realise that hand-to-hand combat is a part of our grade during training, right? There’s not much use you can get out of it in terms of Titan fighting as well, even the smaller ones would be too big and heavy for us to do much.”

“Sure, but it came in handy for you this morning, didn’t it?” Dora retorted. “Besides, if it means spending some more time with you, I’d consider it an overall positive.”

Now  _ that _ she definitely didn’t know how to answer. When thinking about it, Dora was her senior, and quite a bit taller than her, she could probably do overall well with her training, though Annie doubted she could learn as much as she did during her childhood. Who knows, perhaps father would have been happy to see someone else wanting to learn his technique.

Taking a deep breath, Annie sighed and finally caved in. “Fine, I suppose I can teach a few things.” she said.

“Great! Next time we have the chance you can show me the ropes. It is getting a bit too late though, so let’s get back.”

Annie did not protest the suggestion, she recognized it quickly as Dora trying to keep her out of trouble with the instructors, as she was want to do with many of her other cadets.  _ ‘Maybe you’re not so air-headed after all Schulze.’ _ was her last thought of the night as she returned to their dorms and went to sleep.


End file.
